ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team opened its 2023-24 season with an emphatic 78-37 victory over Susquehanna on Wednesday night. Continuing its youth movement, the Mids (1-0) received points from all 13 players that saw action at Alumni Hall, including 10 underclassmen. A 19-3 effort in the second quarter and a 50.0 percent shooting mark in the fourth period led the hosts to the 41-point margin of victory over the River Hawks.

The freshmen starting backcourt of Zanai Barnett-Gay (Glenn Dale, Md.) and Kyah Smith (Richmond, Va.) spearheaded the Mids' attack and combined for 29 points, 17 rebounds, eight steals and six assists. Individually, Barnett-Gay recorded a double-double in her collegiate debut as she went for game-highs of 18 points, 11 rebounds and five steals with Smith going for 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Sydne Watts (Sr., Canton, Ga.) represented Navy's veterans with 12 points, five rebounds and a block.

Though not reaching double figures, Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) and Violet McNece (Fr., Chesterfield, Mo.) provided well-rounded efforts of their own as Louridas posted a line of nine points, eight rebounds and six assists, while McNece found success beyond the arc with eight points courtesy of a pair of three-pointers to go along with six rebounds in just 19 minutes of action.

"We competed for 40 minutes and didn't take a possession off, I'm proud of that," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We've had a tough preseason with a lot of five-on-five full court work. We've raised our expectations. We made a lot of mistakes and didn't shoot it all that great tonight, but those are correctable; you can't fault our effort.

"We'll have to work on our defense, but that's the hardest part with a young team learning the college game. Overall, I saw a lot of things tonight that excite me moving forward."

The action at Alumni Hall opened nearly even as Susquehanna held a slight 6-5 lead over the first four minutes. An 8-0 run on the strength of triples by Louridas and Barnett-Gay between 5:17 and 2:19 sprung Navy back into the lead 13-6 and the hosts never looked back as they closed out the stanza ahead 17-12.

That momentum carried over into the second quarter where Watts and McNece dominated the action on the offensive end. After the River Hawks scored the initial point of the period on a made free throw, Watts and McNece combined to sink four of the next five baskets over a 4:21 run of play. Watts owed the mid-range with a pull-up jumper before hitting a spinning fadeaway, while McNece was lights out from three-point range with treys just 65 seconds apart at 4:24 and 3:19, respectively. The freshman's second three-point jump-started Navy's offense down the stretch as the Mids tallied nine more points for a 12-0 run to conclude the half up 35-16.

In control of the scoreboard, Navy added six points to its lead with a 19-13 advantage in the third quarter. Barnett-Gay championed the Mids' efforts in the stanza with nine of the team's points. Scoring from all three parts of the court, the plebe showcased her ability to get out and run with a pair of fast break layups off of steals, while hitting a pair of free throws, including a conversion of a four-point play in the waning seconds of the period. With less than five seconds left on the clock Lizzie Holder (Fr., Stillwater, Minn.) found Barnett-Gay open on the wing for a three-point attempt and Susquehanna's Madison Miller was late on her close-out subsequently sending Barnett-Gay to the foul line to give Navy a 55-28 lead after three quarters of play.

The Mids' depth was the story of the game, but especially in the fourth quarter as eight different players contributed points as Navy outscored Susquehanna, 23-9. Watts capped her day with a three-pointer on the Mids' first possession before Barnett-Gay added back-to-back fast break layups 20 seconds apart at 6:16 and 5:56 to put Navy up 61-31. The quartet of Sam Schofield (Sr., Maumee, Ohio), Saran Moschella (Fr., Staten Island, N.Y.), Morgan Demos (So., Downers Grove, Ill.) and Kelli Giuliani (So., Oakton, Va.) recorded 11 of the Mids' final 15 points to close out the scoring at 78-37. Schofield and Giuliani contributed three-pointers, while Moschella drove the lane, made a layup and knocked down the ensuing free throw for the 'and-one' for her first collegiate points.

"You look at Kyah Smith, you can see that talent that she has," remarked Taylor about the play of his young players on Wednesday. "She's only going to continue to get better. She played in the Virginia State Finals. Z played in the WCAC at Riverdale and in a ton of big, national tournaments. Violet played at Incarnate Word, one of Missouri's winningest programs. Lizzie came from a very good AAU program, as well. Saran grew up playing in New York City. All of that translates; they know winning basketball. At times we had Kyah, Z, Violet and Lizzie on the court together for long stretches tonight. 

"We're a much deeper team this year. At times, we'll have six-foot guards out there and play really long. Violet and Maren offer us so many different options from a creation and shot-making perspective. When Toni [Papahronis] gets back we'll have an even deeper rotation."

For the game, Navy out-shot Susquehanna, 41.9 percent (31-74) to 24.0 (12-50) from the field and 37.5 percent (9-24) to 11.8 (2-17) from three-point range. Neither squad had much success from the charity stripe as the River Hawks shot just 64.7 percent (11-17) versus a 46.7 (7-15) mark for the Mids.

In the battle on the glass, Navy was dominant with a 56-32 advantage in total rebounds and a 21-7 edge in offensive caroms. Led by Barnett-Gay's game-high 11 boards, six different Mids grabbed five or more rebounds on Wednesday night.

The Mids were prolific as well in the play-making department as the team finished with 19 assists on its 31 made baskets. Louridas was the individual leader with six helpers.

"Morganne Andrews has done a tremendous job of leading this team," said Taylor in closing. "We talk about being one team and being together all the time. It's been a long time since we've had this energy. If you're in Alumni Hall or in the locker room, you can feel it and you can hear it. They're excited to play for each other; that's the big key for me; they love to play. We have really, really good kids.

"We're still very young. 10 out of the 13 kids that played tonight are freshmen or sophomores. Each game, we're going to build. Every experience is going to be a building block; whether its Penn State, Mount St. Mary's or Wagner, whoever; it's going to be a building block and we'll get better. We were a little flat-footed early on tonight, a little too hyped, but I think as we got into it, we got a little bit better and got our hands in there and defended. I'm really looking forward to our consistency day-in, day-out in practice. I think that builds into what we're looking forward to down the road."

Navy will have a quick turnaround as it will be back in action on Friday at Penn State. The Mids and Nittany Lions will face off at the Bryce Jordan Center at 5 p.m. as part of a women's and men's doubleheader.